CO₂ Laser

CO₂ laser treatment is most often discussed for atrophic acne scars, surgical or traumatic scars, rough or sun-damaged texture, and fine lines. In fractional mode the laser treats only a grid of microscopic columns, leaving intact skin between them to speed healing; fully ablative mode resurfaces the entire area and is now reserved for selected cases. A focused handpiece can also vaporize discrete growths such as moles and warts, though a doctor should first confirm the lesion is benign—some moles are better excised and sent for pathology instead.

It helps most with texture-level problems: over several sessions, depressed scars can become shallower and skin can look smoother, but scars are remodeled rather than erased. It cannot lift significantly sagging tissue the way surgery does, and it is not a pigment-specific laser—brown spots and tattoos are usually matched to other devices. Compared with non-ablative fractional lasers, the CO₂ laser generally produces a bigger change per session, at the cost of a clearly longer and more visible recovery.